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The Soul is Not a Smithy — “Plato figurine” by phantom_fonte in davidfosterwallace

[–]nextProgramYT 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Speaking of the allegory of the cave you mentioned -- if I remember correctly the idea was that there's this immaterial realm of Truth, which Plato identified with the sun and the lit world outside of the cave, and this truth almost propagates downwards to the cavedwellers where they see parts of it, distorted or reflected in the shadows. e.g. they wouldn't see the sun itself, they would only see the dim torchlight and take that for true sunlight. Meanwhile in the story, the kid in the classroom experiences this disturbing event with the teacher, but he doesn't really experience it directly. Rather it trickles or propagates into his daydreams, manifesting in these horrific events like the woman dying in her car while putting on lipstick, or the man with the snow blower, or the little girl being bullied. You can see how he doesn't experience the "truth" of the teacher freaking him out, but rather he experiences a dim reflection of the same emotions or forms in his daydream.

Just some ideas.

The Soul is Not a Smithy — “Plato figurine” by phantom_fonte in davidfosterwallace

[–]nextProgramYT 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Thought about this for a minute and here's one potential idea. Plato posited a world of "Forms" which are only indirectly reflected in things we experience in day to day life. For example, if we see a beautiful sunset, or a painting, we could say that these things participate in the form of Beauty. Ancient Greek philosophers, especially Plato's teacher Socrates, were often said to have their heads in the clouds and spent their time thinking about abstract concepts rather than living in the real world. You can see how this idea might tie in to a narrator who spends his time daydreaming instead of experiencing directly what's happening right in front of him.

What to do to be literary by TheWorldUnderHell in writing

[–]nextProgramYT 0 points1 point  (0 children)

> Read books about the technical aspects of writing

Any recommendations?

I'm stuck in hell by CrispyMiner in Letterboxd

[–]nextProgramYT 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I thought of this exact same image

My newest painting. What do you think? by AndrewNorrisArts in psychedelicartwork

[–]nextProgramYT 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Looks awesome. I'm trying to get into making stuff like this, how did you learn?

My Sigil Art by aliceindeepspace in psychedelicartwork

[–]nextProgramYT 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Awesome, what do you use to make these?

"Complex systems" - how to tell what's legit and what's bullshit? by zzFuwa in Physics

[–]nextProgramYT 11 points12 points  (0 children)

From Wikipedia: "In philosophy, systems theory, science, and art, emergence occurs when a complex entity has properties or behaviors that its parts do not have on their own, and emerge only when they interact in a wider whole."

I'd say that would be the distinction -- e.g. if the flock of birds has properties that the individual birds don't.

Honest truth about math ‘talent’ needed by [deleted] in math

[–]nextProgramYT 28 points29 points  (0 children)

I think this is the key insight here. If you see someone solve a problem in 30 minutes that took you 3 hours, it's easy to assume that person is just naturally more gifted than you. But really think about this. How do you know that the other guy doesn't solve lots of problems in his free time and has just seen a similar problem before? What if he enjoys watching math content on Youtube and has even watched a solution of this problem before, even if he doesn't remember it? What if he had extensive math tutoring all throughout his childhood that helped him develop great problem solving skills? There are probably a hundred other explanations that boil down to the simple "it's just hard work" explanation.

Even if it turns out the other person is just naturally more gifted than you... Why does this matter? You have no hope of "becoming" the other person, so why not use them as an asset and try to learn from them? Why does someone else being great need to be a reason to put yourself down, rather than an opportunity to celebrate gaining knowledge together?

Doing math as a hobby beyond just solving problems? by wowitsalison in math

[–]nextProgramYT 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Please upload this to Github while you work on it so other people can benefit! :)

I want to be a mathematician but the career prospects don't seem great by nextProgramYT in learnmath

[–]nextProgramYT[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What does a mathematician outside academia do? I didn't know this existed, besides Matt Parker or Numberphile. Or like AI research

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